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At home I don't use anything larger than 240mm. I just don't have the space.

That said, at work, I definitely have been leaning towards larger knives. Using a nice 270mm gyuto is a revelation. My Ginga is a destroyer of all things veg and I love having the extra height & length. I just feel faster and more precise. When space is limited and I don't have the room to spread out (so to speak), I like having a sturdier 240mm and I actually usually end up using a 210mm petty for most of my prep. Especially if I am doing prep on the line.

I was thinking about Pepin who seems to use a petty for just about anything and then there is that guy HIRO TERADA Basic cutting skills (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YKRnv0aq-8) who always uses a small slicer. (I think we figured out what it was at one point.) But for me there is a definite trend. Even a 240 looks bigger than it use to.

I was thinking about Pepin who seems to use a petty for just about anything and then there is that guy HIRO TERADA Basic cutting skills (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YKRnv0aq-8) who always uses a small slicer. (I think we figured out what it was at one point.) But for me there is a definite trend. Even a 240 looks bigger than it use to.

He uses a Kikuichi 210mm petty.

You can do all that with pretty much any knife but a longer petty is just plain fun because they're so light, thin & nimble.

He was showing off for the camera and so his precision wasn't there 100% but the way he diced the potatoes was gangster.

I know another poster here who was working at a kaiseki place in NYC said one of the Japanese line cooks only used a Suisin IH 180mm petty & was incredible with his knife skills. I would have liked to have seen that!

I prefer knives that have a bit of character. The length doesn't mean terribly much. I can proficiently wield any length of knife all day and use it for a variety of tasks. But the general feel and 'voice' means a lot more to me. There's so many knives that do the general task of cutting very well, but very few that speak to you whilst doing so. That's a purely subjective aspect, yet much more compelling IMO. All that being said- if I was trapped in some nonstop version of prep hell, I'd probably feel best with a 53mm tall, 245mm long gyuto

The AI does not love you, nor does it hate you, but you are made out of atoms it might find useful for something else. - Eliezer Yudkowsky